The practitioner as policy analyst: a study of student reflections of an interprofessional course in higher education

Health and welfare practitioners in the United Kingdom have experienced and continue to experience considerable turbulence as services and occupational boundaries undergo restructuring. To a significant extent such turbulence is driven by policies that promote interprofessional agendas. This paper reports on an evaluation of a higher education programme that adopted a social policy approach to the analysis of interprofessional working. The retrospective views were sought of nursing, midwifery, social work and community and youth work post-qualifying students with use of semi-structured questionnaires and focus groups. Although difficulties were encountered with the political science focus to the programme, overall the participants very positively evaluated the opportunity to engage in policy analysis in a shared learning environment. Given the highly politicised, complex and shifting environment of interprofessional working, it is suggested that the study lends support to the argument that 'policy acumen' is a central skill for contemporary health and welfare practitioners. The paper, therefore, starts to explore issues of particular relevance for educationalists involved in developing frameworks for interprofessional programmes particularly in higher education.